{"id":3183,"date":"2019-04-03T00:56:46","date_gmt":"2019-04-03T00:56:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marcmangel.net\/?page_id=3183"},"modified":"2019-04-03T00:56:46","modified_gmt":"2019-04-03T00:56:46","slug":"shabbat-parah-5779","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/?page_id=3183","title":{"rendered":"Shabbat Parah (5779)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Drash Cards for Shabbat Parah (5779)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

by Marc\nMangel<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 One of\nthe great things about having gaps in one\u2019s background is that they are\nsometimes very easily filled and at the same time lead to new insights. Such is\nthe case with my drash this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Purim\nfalls in between Shabbat Zachor and Shabbat Parah.  The connection between Shabbat Zachor and\nPurim is obvious, since Amalek is an ancestor of Haman. I always assumed that\nthere was a deeper, hidden (= ester) connection between Purim and Shabbat Parah,\nbut never investigated it. So I decided to do that for this drash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Imagine\nmy surprise and concern then, when I was in Tacoma last week without my\nlibrary, and discovered  – as \u201ceveryone\nknows\u201d \u2013 that  Shabbat Parah is the first Shabbat in the\nPesach season, followed by Shabbat Mevarchim HaChodesh Nissan, Shabbat\nHaGadol and Shabbat Pesach (1 or 2 each year; this year 2). \u201cEveryone knows\u201d\nthat it has nothing to do with Purim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Shabbat Parah\nis the first Shabbat of the Pesach season: Because\nonly people who were pure could eat from the Passover\nsacrifice<\/a>, a public announcement right before Nisan\nreminded people to purify themselves before making the pilgrimage to Jerusalem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022The haftorah\nalso treats being cleansed from contamination, but\nthe impurity in this case is human sinfulness.   This renewal of self and nation reflects the\ntheme of redemption that characterizes Pesach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022\nUndaunted, I decided to continue to look for the hidden connection between\nPurim and Shabbat Parah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 A reminder:  Generally\nspeaking, the mitzvot are divided\ninto mishpatim (“laws”\nor “judgements”), chukkim (“decrees”) and eidot (“testimonials\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022The mishpatim are\nmitzvot such as the commandment to give charity or the prohibitions against\ntheft and murder, whose reason and utility are obvious to us, and which we\nwould arguably have instituted on our own if G\u2011d had\nnot commanded them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 The eidot are mitzvot that\ncommemorate or represents something \u2014 e.g., the commandments to put on tefillin<\/em>, rest on Shabbat, or eat matzah on Passover. These are laws which we might not have\ndevised on our own, but we can understand their importance and utility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 The chukkim are\nmitzvot, such as the dietary laws, the laws of family\npurity or the red heifer, which we accept as divine decrees, despite\ntheir incomprehensibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022\nRashi calls the red heifer a \u201csupra-rational [beyond rational] commandment\u201d.   Sefer HaChinuch says about the parah adumah\n(397) \u201cMy hands grew weak and I was afraid to open my mouth.\u201d  Beit HaLevi comments that when King Solomon\nwas stumped by the parah adumah ritual, it made him realize that he also did\nnot fully understand the other mitzvot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 This is exactly\nwhere Purim and Shabbat Parah intersect. The supra-rational commandment of the\nred heifer links to the irrational hatred of Haman.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022There\nwould be no story of Purim without Haman\u2019s irrational hatred. We read in  Ch 3, v 8,9: Haman said to King Achashverosh, “There is\none nation scattered and dispersed among the nations throughout the provinces\nof your kingdom, whose laws are unlike those of any other nation and who do not\nobey the laws of the King. It is not in the King’s interest to tolerate\nthem.  If it please the King, let [an edict] be issued for their\ndestruction\u201d.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Haman hates the Jews\nbecause the they different.  Hatred of\npeople simply because they are different has been with us since the time of\nPurim and is still with us today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022Now for the\nconnection.  We are told more than once\nin the maftir that the para adumah is an eternal decree. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Irrational hatred is\nno more easy to understand than the chukim. \nBut like the chukim, irrational hatred will always be with us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 That is the hidden\nlink between Purim and Shabbat Parah \u2013 to be mindful of eternal surpra-rational\ncommandments and  of the eternal battle\nagainst irrational hatred. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022Shabbat\nshalom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Drash Cards for Shabbat Parah (5779) by Marc Mangel \u2022 One of the great things about having gaps in one\u2019s background is that they are sometimes very easily filled and at the same time lead to new insights. Such is the case with my drash this week. \u2022 Purim falls in between Shabbat Zachor and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":51,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"full-width-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3183","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3183"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3184,"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3183\/revisions\/3184"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/51"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}